Street Stories reporter Jo Sullivan stopped by the Library of Erana website a couple days ago to answer a few questions. Here’s a bit of what she had to say, but you might find it interesting to click through to get to know her even better.

Please give us a little information about the world in which you live.

You might not believe this, but the Chicago streets the homeless navigate are as alien as any dystopian sci-fi world you might read about. Walk around in the shoes of a kid who’s been kicked out of his home because he refuses to be abused anymore and you’ll see what I mean. You’re like a spectre floating aimless and ignored until the “real world” needs someone to blame for the darkness that happens in their lives. Then you stand out like a two-headed green Reever. Sometimes I feel like a shaman or a psychic, able to see through to this other dimension they live in, the Twilight Zone of homelessness. Is it a good thing to pull them back into the same place the corrupt politicians and so called “Christians” live in? I don’t really know, but until someone discovers another layer of life, one where we care about each other and treat ourselves and our neighbors with respect, this world will have to do.

Do you travel in the course of your adventures? If so where?

I’ve travelled all over Chicago in the last five years, and have discovered I don’t need to go anywhere else to experience the world. From Little Italy to Chinatown then on to Greektown and Little Vietnam. Devon Avenue is like a miniature India and the Pilsen neighbourhood has a distinctive neo-Bohemian-Baroque architecture from the Czech and Bohemian immigrants who settled there. There’s a strong Ethiopian community in the Uptown area and if it’s food I’m looking for I don’t think there is any culture not represented somewhere in the city. Why fly when a quick “L” ride can get me anywhere I want to go in the world?